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Definitely A MOO Killer!! A++!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: February 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Definitely A MOO Killer A++!!
No Multiplayer was included because the developers felt it didnt warrant the 30% of the game budget, so instead they focused highly on the singly player aspect of the game and they included Ship customization and other cool stuff. The ship customization is awesome, you can create all kinds of different and cool ships, shields, engines, weapons and much much more. you can even attempt to create your own personal X-wing look alike fleet and send them into battle and watch the action unfold. The game has nice graphics, and alot of stuff to research! This game definitely was insipired by the MOO series. I bought the game Digitally (download) and i am 100% satisfied with what i expected. The developers did say if enough peeps wanted multiplayer they could easily create an expansion to include it in the future. The Tech Support is superb, and the game runs nicely.. if your a fan of the Master of Orion Series, check this game out you wont be disappointed.

Spiritual Successor to MOO2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 171 / 178
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Master of Orion 2 was probably the last really good game that has been released in this catagory. MOO3 was a bit of a flop -- it was far too automated with far too many "false choices"...ways you could design a spaceship that simply were not as efficient as hitting the button that let the computer design the whole thing for you, instantly.

GalCiv2 brings back everything that was good about MOO2, with modern graphics and appealing decisions to make with just enough automation options to keep the endgame from becoming tedious without ever "playing the game for you".

The main thing I want to talk about, though, is the AI.

Historically, games like this have the computer opponet cheat. You have 1 colony ship, they have 3. How? Because the computer cheats. The developers couldn't come up with a good way to make a smart computer opponet so they compensated by having it cheat instead.

GalCiv2 doesn't do this (unless you want it to, which I don't advise).

The AI is pretty fantastic. Set computer opponets to an "intelligent" level of difficulty and they will fight you with all the same restrictions you have. They have to scout, just like you. Their ships cost just as much as yours. Their factories produce just as quickly as yours. The only advantage they have is one of efficient micromanagement.

It's not completely infallible, it sometimes does silly things, but it's good enough and smart enough to trounce you most days without any need to cheat.

I find this to be much more appealing. I like a level playing field.

Beyond this, the game has all the usual componets. You research technologies you want from a large and diverse tree. You colonize planets and build factories and research facilities and so forth. You design starships with your latest technology including a fairly optional ability to customize the "look" of your ships. There's diplomacy and war and espionage and random events and all that.

The only thing really missing is tactical combat, although whether we really miss it is arguable.

In the MOO series of games, lots of time was spent on tactical combat -- how your fleet is going to attack the enemy fleet. You move the ships around on the screen and tell them who to attack, etc.

In GalCiv2, this is all handled automatically, similar to the Civilization games. They do take it one step further by providing you with a nice "tactical battle" view, though, which takes you through a full 3-D enactment of the battle but it's just a viewer. You aren't ordering your ships to do anything in this mode, you're just watching it unfold like an episode of Babylon 5.

The bright side of this, I suppose, is that it doesn't take you all year to complete a game. Like Civilization, your focus is on research, developing your worlds and playing a strategy game. You won't be spending hours of your time stuck in a tactical battle between ships.

Awesome TBS game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 17
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Stardock hit it out of the park with this one. A fantastic turn based games that will keep you coming back for more for years to come.

Best turn-based space game since MOO2!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 225 / 233
Date: February 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you've ever played and loved Master Of Orion 2, your prayers have been answered. I downloaded the game from GalCiv's site (although you can save $6 by purchasing it from Amazon, but I couldn't wait), and it is a wonderful game. At the time of writing this review, I still haven't slept since downloading it. I haven't done that with a game in years.

Where does this succeed where Master Of Orion 3 and Imperium Galactica failed?

1) The GUI - The interface to the game is very streamlined, simple, and uncluttered. MOO2's greatest feature was how fast you could navigate all of the options. This interface reminds you of the great MOO2 interface with big buttons, a solid feel, and a nice heavy "click" on the buttons. You can control ships with mouse or keypad, and a double-click will access almost anything in the game. Gone are the overly-complex right-click menus and 5-10 layer deep menus of MOO3.

2) The Music - Not overly complex or overdominating. It sets the mood and then stays out of the way.

3) The graphics - You can crank the resolution way up to 1600x1200 if you want to heat up your graphics card, but this is the rare game that looks almost exactly as good at 1024x768. You could have a four year old GeForce2 card and run the game as fast as someone with a brand new 7800. The main reason is that the game uses 3D when necessary to add depth, but otherwise relies on beautifully drawn 2D environments.

4) The mechanics of the gameplay - The game plays fast, but of course, being a turn-based game, you can move as fast or as slow as you like, which is why it is so elegant. A beginner can take his time and enjoy, but as a game goes on and you build a huge empire, you can fly through the screens to manage your empire. The ship design and combat system is truly fun, while maintaining its simplicity.

5) Many ways to win...really! - Most games like this are won through combat or combat+"some minor element that really doesn't matter". In my first game, I cranked up the difficulty and built myself a massive fleet and set out to conquer the universe. Then I noticed my enemies were not fighting each other as much and focusing on me. I had neglected the diplomacy, and I quickly lost the game via diplomacy. You really can win, and get beat, through diplomacy, economy, and many methods other than war. Very cool...

My hats off to the designers of this game. They definitely set out to make an homage to MOO2, and they've succeeded. This little indie publisher really showed up the big guys.

Who knows, maybe in a few years we'll be begging companies to make another GC2:DL!

Improved and Still Very Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Galactic Civilizations 2 improves upon the original game without changing what made the first version very fun. In a similar way that updated versions of "Civilization" kept on adding a few more improvements on an already great concept. Battles logistics are refined as well as planet management. You have more control, as each planet now have unique characteristics. The graphics and sound are much better, as expected. There are a few small bugs that I expect will be fixed with an upcoming patch, but overall it's very playable out of the box. If you are finally getting out of CIV 4 recovery and your spouse or significant other will not groan at you too loud for getting this, enjoy this game.

Good game, but horrible registration and tech support

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 19
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a pretty good game, and am improvement over the original, but man oh man have they got some issues with their registration system and tech support. To download updates to the game, you have to register on their site, which I tried to do -- you sign up and they send you an e-mail with a link to activate your account. Problem is, my e-mail never arrived (and no, it didn't get trapped by a spam filter). I tried to re-create the account, but I guess they don't have any code in place on the webpage to check to see if the account already exists, and it failed with a hard ASP.NET error. I clicked on the link to have them re-send my password, hoping the page would be intelligent enough to know that I still needed my activation link. THIS e-mail I DID receive -- but not only did it not include the activation link, but the e-mail itself consisted of black text over a dark picture of space -- the text was practically invisible until highlighted.

It gets better: I received FIVE automated responses from their help system for the ONE e-mail I sent them about the problems I had, and all five have different ticket numbers. When I click on the link provided to view the status of my issue, I log in and am taken to a blank page. Great. By cutting off the end of the URL and going to the root, I'm able to view my ticket, which has still not been worked on -- they tell you it could take UP TO two business days for a response, but it's been that long and I haven't heard anything from them yet (unless you count the five automated responses).

On top of it all, I had a hard time just getting the game to install -- turns out that their installer doesn't like ZoneAlarm. If ZoneAlarm is running, the installer will appear to hang (I think it IS running, just very slowly). I could get the installer to kick in by DISABLING ZoneAlarm, but I didn't want to have my firewall down, so a workaround was to copy both CDs directly to my hard drive and install from there, which still took a long time (again, it doesn't seem to like ZoneAlarm), but eventually completed. I've installed plenty of software with ZoneAlarm running, and this is the only app (along with the original Galactic Civilizations) that takes issue with it. No message is displayed, no ZoneAlarm warning -- the installer just drags.

If there are two good things I can say, they are that the game is good, and you don't need the CD in the drive to play the game. Also, they allow you to install the app on another PC as long as you are the primary user, and they allow you to make a backup for archival purposes. All of which is very cool. But they really need to get their registration and support act together. I am a programmer and am technically capable with PCs, and this is the most frustration I've had with any app in recent memory.

Cheesy intro, classic game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: March 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In terms of game play, this game can trace it's roots back all the way to the original "Trek" for VT terminals by way of Master of Orion, The Corporate Machine (another Stardock title) and the original GalCiv. You explore space, colonize planets, build fleets, trade and do everything you can to beat the alien civilizations you play against. The sophisticated AI and sparse resources means you can't just go blundering around with a fleet of ships and expect to win.

It's hard to describe the game if you've never played this kind of thing, but imagine Civilization in space - research, technology trees, planet improvements and so forth. The difference is that there are a limited number of planets and resources and everyone wants them. Therefore there is a lot more diplomacy and forward thinking than the gradual landgrab of a Civ game.

I played the original GalCiv and it was a great game, somewhat let down by a dense interface and 2D graphics. But the AI could be devilish and Stardock uniquely kept supporting the game way beyond its shelf life. The sequel carries all the good bits from the original and adds a complete makeover for the front end. Everything is 3D now and looks very pretty indeed. The UI is also a bit clearer although reading the manual is recommended especially if you haven't played this kind of game before.

One bonus for gamers is the CD is not required to play. You can install the game and forget about the CD. This deserves an extra star by itself. If you install the Stardock Central app, it will keep your game up to date. SD Central is similar to Steam but has been around a lot longer.

The only fault if we're going to pick faults is that the intro is a cheesy ripoff of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. You know the prologue at the front LoTR that relates the story of the War of the Ring? Transplant that into space complete with Kate Blanchett wannabe voiceover and you have the intro to this game. Ugh.

Once over, the rest of the game is exemplary. Highly recommended.

Excellent Turn-Based Space Strategy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was a big fan of Masters of Orion 2. I can't even remember how many hours I spent playing it (We won't talk about MOO3 *cough*). There really hasn't been a good space turn-based strategy game since, until now. Galactic Civilization I was simple and fun. They took the sequel and upgraded it in a lot of ways while still retaining the fun factor and even reducing how much micromanagment you have to do and adding customization. Each game is highly customizable so you can play the exact game you wish in the Galaxy of your choosing.

Some of the more noteworthy features over the original include; Ability to watch Fleet battles, Planet construction has changed making planet class more important, Customization of your ships, Improved AI and Graphics.

The tutorials cover practically everything you ever wanted to know about playing Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords. The sound and music was very good with the exception of one music track which got too high pitched and irritating.

Bottomline, If you liked Masters of Orion 2 then you will love this game or into Space Turn-Based Strategy games.

Pros:
- Good Graphics
- Great Tutorial
- Very Fun
- Easy to get updates via Stardock

Cons:
- A few minor bugs and glitches (Like one that displays improper size of components when constructing ships)

Best 4X In A Long Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: March 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Stardock has outdone themselves with GalCiv2. First of all, the Stardock downloader system is excellent, and is how I bought the game (i.e., downloaded it). I could rant about the typical features, but we've all played games like this before. Instead I want to focus on the highlights and things Stardock has done to give it flavour. First of all, the tech tree is excellent. The different races have personalities, and the AI can be wicked. There are TONS of random events and factors in the game: anomalies your flagship can pick up for bonuses, galaxy-wide events like economic booms, mineral deposits on planets, minor races, &tc. The game includes a ship editor so that you can build and customise your own ships, or just use the ones that come when you unlock technology. Finally, there are 4 different ways to win: technology, influence, diplomacy, and good old butt-stomping.

weak Install, great game but heavy strategy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: March 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Sloppy install interface, but installed fine. Plays like a new and improved Master of Orion 2. The manual is terrible but the distributer has a good website with some helpful forums. Highly recommended if you loved MOO2, just remember this game takes LOTS of time and lacks the super graphics/action that most modern games have. Virtually no loading time on my P4 3.2 GHz.

Bottom Line compared to MOO2:

Better graphics and runs perfectly
Way better AI (doesn't need to cheat!)
way better diplomacy
weaker space combat (automated now)
Easier planet control, but strange math for bonuses (possible bug)

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